Groong Research & Analysis Group

After weeks of promises to force President Robert Kocharian out of office, the opposition parties in Armenia started a series of protests and demonstration first in various cities of Armenia and then in the capital itself. Although the opposition parties managed to have a united stand, the protests have yet to achieve their goals. The ruling coalition, on the other hand, condemned the attempts of the opposition party to “destabilize” the country and supported the regime’s actions to disperse the protesters and bring the country back to order....

CLASH OF PRINCIPLES? AIM-ArmeniaWeek Conflict Highlights the Contentious Role and Ownership of Media in Armenia PART II: INTERVIEW WITH SALPI H. GHAZARIAN YEREVAN, ARMENIA For years the Armenian International Magazine (AIM), the Los Angeles-based monthly magazine, claimed to represent virtually the only Armenian “free thinking and free press” (AIM, October 2001, p. 10). It declared itself to be the champion of “an independent press vital to the development of a democratic society in Armenia and democratic institutions in the Diaspora” (ArmeniaWeek....

CLASH OF PRINCIPLES? AIM-ArmeniaWeek Conflict Highlights the Contentious Role and Ownership of Media in Armenia PART I: INTERVIEW WITH TONY HALPIN AND JOHN HUGHES By Groong Research & Analysis Group YEREVAN, ARMENIA For years the Armenian International Magazine (AIM), the Los Angeles-based monthly magazine, had claimed to represent virtually the only Armenian “free thinking and free press” (AIM, October 2001, p. 10). It claimed to be the champion of “an independent press vital to the development of a democratic society in Armenia and democratic institutions in the Diaspora” (ArmeniaWeek....

Baku appears to offer more substantial ideas to break the impasse in the Karabakh negotiations, but Yerevan needs to be cautious. Azerbaijan’s recent unofficial offers, discussed with a former top Armenian negotiator, indicate Baku’s retreat from previously stated policy of maintaining a full blockade of Armenia until a final settlement is achieved. Reportedly Baku is proposing normalization of trade relations with Armenia before a final solution is achieved. It appears that Baku is implicitly reconciling with the idea that Karabakh may become part of Armenia; and that not all territories under Armenian control will be returned....

“Hayasdane polor hayeri hayrenike e” - Armenia is the fatherland of all Armenians. This was the motto of the second Armenia-Diaspora pan-national conference [khohrtazhoghov]. Organized by the Armenian Foreign Ministry, the goal of the conference was to link up diasporan Armenians with Armenia, with the explicit aim of generating investment and economic assistance. The message, “invest in Armenia,” or “assist Armenia” was the main point of the conference, and the “subtext” of all the events....

Introduction The war in Afghanistan and related events have put the flare-up of fighting in Georgia in early October very much at the “low priority” end of international concerns. Moreover, the Georgian President’s sacking of his government in early November, and the current strains within the political elite in the capital, have shifted the focus of many experts from the “on the ground” tensions in and around Abkhazia to power politics in Tbilisi....

GROONG INTERVIEW WITH TURKISH-ARMENIAN RECONCILIATION COMMISSION (TARC) MEMBERS VAN Z. KRIKORIAN AND ANDRANIK MIGRANIAN GROONG: How were you approached to join the committee? Who approached you? What were the criteria for your selection? JOINT ANSWER: All four of the Armenian members of the Commission came together on this issue as a result of a number of conversations and knowledge of one another’s background and work over the years. The two of us have known each other since 1991 when Van went to Moscow as a member of the U....

On the eve of the Karabakh Talks in Geneva: What does Armenia gain or lose from a peace agreement? The long and torturous road towards the resolution of the Karabakh conflict will reach Geneva next month. The meeting is a follow up to what has been described as “momentous” talks between the Presidents of Armenian and Azerbaijan, first in Paris in March, then in Key West in April. According to Armenia’s Foreign Minister Vartan Oskanian, the parties came “closer than ever to a solution....

Ten years after the end of the Cold War, the international political atmosphere has evidently become more conducive for the official recognition by Western governments and international organizations of the 1915 Armenian Genocide. Even former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger finds the Turkish denial unexplainable and thinks ‘activist Armenians will help get’ eventual recognition from the US government (1). The reference attributed to Hitler, “who remembers the Armenians?” has been one of the most quoted sentences in media articles calling for recognition....

With the French Senate’s recognition of the Armenian Genocide and the heated debates in the US House of Representatives in September, Turkey is under international pressure on the question of the Genocide. Meanwhile, Yerevan and Armenian communities around the world have stepped up their efforts for the recognition of the “crime against humanity”. The French Senate passed a bill on November 8, submitted by five parties, which simply stated: “France publicly recognizes the Armenian genocide in 1915....

President Kocharian dismisses senior ambassador in continuing power consolidation. On Wednesday, April 20, 2000, President Robert Kocharian dismissed Armen Sarkissian, Armenia’s Ambassador to the United Kingdom and the country’s most senior diplomat in Europe. President Kocharian did not provide any explanation for Ambassador Sarkissian’s dismissal. Foreign Ministry sources only said that his sacking was in line with recent efforts to reduce ambassadorial tenures to a “maximum of four years”, but Sarkissian’s sacking reveals a deeper political malaise in Armenia....